Indigenous Knowledge

A cross-curricular lesson on a new AOK

Aims of the lesson:
Understand the notions of indigenous knowledge and culture.

See the relevance of studying Indigenous Knowledge in IB.

Develop links between areas of knowledge and ways of knowing in the

context of indigenous knowledge.

Revise what has been covered throughout the year by showing examples
of how previous learning can be applied to Indigenous Knowledge as an
Area of Knowledge.
Why do we study indigenous knowledge?

Recognising perspectives.
Be caring and considerate.
Internationalism.
Implications of one language/one culture.
Understanding links between AOKs (holistic
approach to knowledge).
What does it mean to be indigenous?
UNESCO definition 2004:
Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with
pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves
distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them.
They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop
and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity as the basis
of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social
institutions and legal system.

What are the implications for these peoples of living on the edges of society?

Why bother preserving ethnic identity?

Wade Davis at TED

The world in which we live does

not exist in some absolute
sense, but is just one model of
reality, the consequence of one
particular set of adaptive
choices that our lineage made,
albeit successfully, many
generations ago.
Barasana (Northwest Amazon)
Kogi people (Sierra Nevada Northern Colombia)
Ayahuasca: How do you know your plants?
Disappearing lives (Jimmy Nelson)
Culture specific knowledge
http://www.emlii.com/e977d5bf/Have-a-Last-Good-Look-At-Them-Before-They-Pass-Away
What does it mean to be indigenous?
How do we know?
Dominant paradigm Indigenous/native knowledge
Western science Education through life
Language (metaphor)
Scientific method
Nature/ecology
Evidence/explanation in physical world Oral history/stories (generally not
Understanding how documented)
Tradition and inherited wisdom
Education at school/formal Or should we not think
in opposite pairs?
Holistic
Media Locally bound
Written tradition Closely related to survival
Culture and context specific
Part to whole Non-formal
Hypothesis/ falsification Practical applications
Skepticism Physical and metaphysical world
Non-formal, orally transmitted
language Remember

songs
the lost in
translation

lesson?
stories
dance
rituals What are the implications of

the last speaker of a language

demonstrations dying?

shared work
Case study: The Penan (Malaysia)
Realspecific/Non-formal,
Culture life situation: Copy
orallyof the Penan dictionary
transmitted/holistic/dynamic and adaptive, closely related to
survival/importance of ecology and the natural environment/the metaphysical.
(only 7 in existence)

Real life situation: Copy of the Penan

dictionary
(only 7 in existence)